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the question is in the title. i have read in 40k books that rogue traders are just unlicensed merchant vessels or the likes. (theres also a bbc programme called rogue traders, its very good ) but why name the original 40k : Rogue trader

Because the game originally revolved around these rogue traders (of which the player was one).

The first version which involved miniatures of 40k was called rogue trader.

It was nothing like what 40k is now. If was about much smaller games where you were a rogue trader in the 40k universe.

It was the 1st edition of the 40K rulebook,it is also the only not to have a starter set such as assault on blackreach or battle for maccrage

In essence they are a futuristic version of a privateer.

Yeah in current fluff a rogue trader is a human captain who is allowed to operate in inperial and unknown space. The get a lot of money from trading in food, weapons, animals ect.. They help the imperium by bringing in knowledge from unknown space. They are also useful for transport and gathering info on aliens. Unlike normal humans they are allowed to work with aliens and deal in non imperial tech.

Aww so its not like the following type of Rogue trader



Episode XII


Rogue trader: "right Miss, i could giv yar ship a new toilet plumbing for a thousand bob, or yar ship is gonna blow up. yar don't want that do yar old lady?'

So IG, SM, orks etc.. were all around, but you were not aligned with any of them, you fought as mercs. Wouldn't mind a codex for them in 6th edition...

You could get orks, SM, IG and even eldar as mercs working for you though.

i still think they should have rogue traders as what they are in our life.

example


Elite:
Dodgy Plumber 90 pts
equipment:
Spanner, big wallet, knife
upgrade:
Noxious gas 10pts
Illegal License: 20 pts
TEAM OF "Workers" 60 pts

If I was a better converter you would have just inspired me.

Ill do it some time

So models would be Catachans with extra weight GS on around the middle, but which codex would they be?

IG book, as well as rogue traders you can have illegal immigrant penal squads

Or Orks

Truck = half finished van job.
grots = Illegal immigrants
battle wagon = construction vehicle with untrained driver (must not be insured).

corpsesarefun wrote:IG book, as well as rogue traders you can have illegal immigrant penal squads

An army of polish plumbers (no offence anyone polish)

Answering the original question (because no one has done it sufficiently yet)

They are NOT simply unlicensed merchant vessels. They are in fact some of the empires most powerful servants. A merchant has a "Marchant Charter" allowing them to trade within the imperium. A Rogue Trader has an entirely different level of authority.

Rogue Traders are individuals who have been granted a "Warrant of Trade" by the Imperium. Usually these are ancient and increadably valuable documents that have been passed down in families through the millenia. Some were even signed by the Emperor himself, or his Primarchs, and as such and ancient and holy artifacts. The Warrent of Trade is hereditary, therefore Rogue Traders are often just the latest inheritors of ancient dynasties. Each of these documents is unique, and cannot be repealed. According to Imperial law and religious tradition no one may overrule their decisions, even the High Lords of Terra. To get around this, there are often restrictions built into the Warrant. These conditions vary wildly. One trader may have to help colonize so may worlds every century, another may be honor bound to protect a sector, and another may be required to fully explore a section of space before their Warrant goes into full effect.

The Warrant of Trade is granted for numerous reasons. Often it is in recognition of merit and service to the empire. Other times a powerful lord of the Adeptus Terra offer warrants of trade as a bribe to their rivals. The rival simply walks away into a life of adventure and wealth and no longer causes trouble for their opponents. And finally it is sometimes given as a political "out". Rather than suffering disgrace and years of political infighting and maneuvering a lord or politician that has fallen out of favor may be granted a Warrent of Trade. Ultimate freedom, wealth, and power, in exchange for exile.

In terms of position they are the equivalent of a chapter master, planetary governor, or inquisitor (RTCR p322). The imperium initially provides them with a ship, anything up to cruiser level. They typically build up massive flotillas of hundreds, sometimes thousands of ships, sometimes with complete with regimens of infantry and armor, enough firepower to subjugate entire sectors. It is not unheard of for certain influential rogue traders to have detachments of space marines. They typically have more resources at their disposal than most planets, and through political and trade connections could bring entire systems to ruin. Often they can call in favors from Space Marine chapters, and even Inquisitors. They are exceedingly cunning, and often ruthless. When so moved it is not unheard of for a Rogue Trader to wage war on entire alien empires, and win, returning to imperial space with entire worlds worth of pillaged wealth.

As powerful as they are within Imperial space, their real strength manifests when they leave imperial settled systems. Their "Warrant of Trade" makes them official representatives of the Emperor. Like the Ordos Xenos they are allowed to interact with Xeno. Many of the more radical traders will acquire large stores of xenotech, often augmenting their ships with technology never seen in imperial space. They alone are allowed to open up relations with Xeno empires, often acting as intermediaries between imperial and alien worlds. They are not only allowed, but encouraged to explore the unknown regions of space. Many of them leave for years, even decades at a time. Many never return, but those who do bring back enough wealth to buy entire start systems, lost technology from the dark age, slaves by the billions, and advanced xenotech.

Outside of imperial space they ARE the Imperium, and are granted power similar to that of an Inquisitor. They may declare crusades, excommunicatus, and even exterminatus on whole worlds. They are responsible for spreading the word of the Emperor. Under this authority, some will conquer worlds and establish small empires with themselves as the governors.

In short, the Rogue Traders are the branch of the imperium responsible for standing between the empire and the unknown, and are given full authority and autonomy to do as they see fit in that capacity.

Now not ALL rogue traders achieve these levels of power. But with the kind of power and autonomy they are granted, most of them either rise to dizzying heights or are lost to the void. Anything in between is only a temporary situation.

With this level of authority, however, comes a great risk. If a Rogue Trader is ever determined to be guilty of heresy or treason they will come under the full assault of the inquisition. Imperial fleets will be diverted, space marines deployed, and assassins dispatched to end not only the trader, but the lives of everyone in his fleet, and every member of his family as far back as it can be traced. They have been given the trust of the Emperor himself, and cast it aside. His/her punishment will be as severe as can be imagined by the inquisition.

A "Letter of Marque" is a similar, but more restricted document. They are not hereditary (heirs me re-apply), and do not give unlimited authority, though an individual with a letter of marque may rival the resources of a true Rogue Trader within their area of control.

An yes, they totally need their own codex.

lol riplikash always beats me to the post of actual, useful, question-answering content.

Yay, I win.

Wow seriously cool fluff, I was also under the impression that rogue traders were 40k equivalent of Han Solo, but this is waaaay coooler. Thanks for the write-up!

I was also under the impression that rogue traders were 40k equivalent of Han Solo

It's somewhere in between. Riplikash described the richest and most recognised rogue traders. There are 1000s more rogue traders who are little more than normal merchants or even pirates. In the BL book Ravenor the main characters end up on a world just outsie imperial space which rogue traders use as a meeting place. It's basically a giant market, there are the richest rogue traders buying goods there, but we also see a lot of lesser traders and get a good idea about them. They tend to have much smaller ships, often only the size of standard mechant ships, and usually work on the border of imperial space ferrying stuff between outer imperial plannets and people just out of imperial control. They are also seen as very shady individuals. They try to trick each other and used a lot of underhand tricks. A lot of them as also transporting illegal goods (in this case drugs) and the imperium know it but allow it anyway.

Yes, and there are definitely some fluff inconsistencies as well. The rights given to the Rogue Trader under Imperial law are expansive, and it never made sense that some of them were smugglers.

For example, if imperial law and religious custom dictate that none may countermand the orders of a rogue trader, how would they ever remain at the level of basic trader for long? If they are not only allowed, but encouraged to open lucrative trade relations with xeno empires, which they would have no competition for, why would they bother smuggling? If the Warrant of Trade is an ancient and powerful document giving the holder right rivaling that of an inquisitor, wouldn't all of the small scruffy traders be huge targets?

There was a long period of time where rogue traders were not an active part of 40k lore, and BL writers seemed to use them as "Han Solo's". Recently GW has been trying to rectify that. The new Rogue Trader rule book seems to imply that many of these "Rogue Traders" are actually just the holders of letters of Marque, regular trader licences, or simply lying since it is typically very difficult to verify a Rogue Traders status (most refuse to present their Warrant of Trade, as it is simply to valuable. As the RTCR says, most planets figure it is best to just assume the man in the vaguely military uniform with the flotilla stationed in geostationary orbit is who he says he is).

SOMEONE PLEASE MAKE A ROUGE TRADER CODEX!

Actually, I've been thinking you could do a decent "counts as" army using an either an inquisitorial codex or even a xeno codex like the Tau, depending the the kind of individual you want to represent.

They typically have the same kinds of hangers on (priests, assassins, guardsmen and space maries). You use guardsmen to represent your troops, mod up some stormtroopers with Tau or Eldar weaponry, bring a small contingent of SM allies, or mod up some troops using "advanced archaeo/xeno tech" and give the SM stats.

For a more radical army run them as Tau and mod up a bunch of guardsmen with Tau weaponry.

Riplikash- I think it comes down to who signed the document and what the crime is. If a primarch or the E himself signed it then there is noone with the authority to remove it (meaning the RT can do anything legally allowed and no one can stop them) , if it was given by a lord of terra or other high up official it can be removed easily, so the RT has to be careful who he / she annoys.

It also depends on the crime. The RT is allowed to communicate/trade with aliens, leave imperial space, use non imperial technology ect.. However this doesn't mean they can break imperial law. The high lords may not be able to remove the liscense but they can lock up or execute the trader. If a RT is deal in illegal goods or trading with the wrong people they can still be arrested. If the RT gets in the way of the =I= they may be unable to remove the warrant but instead they'll just kill they.


I think SM would be a cool codex to use. Humans full of xeno chemicals and tech could easily equal a SM. Another option would be nids:
Termaguants =some small xeno creatures
Genestealers= ninja like aliens
Warriors = Humans in battlesuits
Trygon= Mining/drilling machine
Ect..
The reason I suggested them is because you can have lots of variation in the types of aliens because the units are so different.

Really rogue traders can be any codex just because they can use pretty much anything.

4M2A wrote:Riplikash- I think it comes down to who signed the document and what the crime is. If a primarch or the E himself signed it then there is noone with the authority to remove it (meaning the RT can do anything legally allowed and no one can stop them) , if it was given by a lord of terra or other high up official it can be removed easily, so the RT has to be careful who he / she annoys.

I don't know that I agree with that, though I see where your coming from. The Rogue Trader Core Rulebook is pretty clear about the fact that a true Warrant of Trade cannot be rescinded, even by a high lord of Terra, no matter who signed it. This is not only built into Imperial law, but by the traditions of the Imperial Cult. It then goes on to makes special note of letters of Marque, stating that they are a "recent" invention and are have many more restrictions than a true Warrant of Trade, allowing the Imperium more control over the individual traders.

It also depends on the crime. The RT is allowed to communicate/trade with aliens, leave imperial space, use non imperial technology ect.. However this doesn't mean they can break imperial law. The high lords may not be able to remove the license but they can lock up or execute the trader. If a RT is deal in illegal goods or trading with the wrong people they can still be arrested. If the RT gets in the way of the =I= they may be unable to remove the warrant but instead they'll just kill they.

I fully agree, and made mention of that in my original post. While none may be able to countermand their orders, that doesn't mean they are untouchable. And once they cross the line they face the full wrath of the inquisition. They aren't all powerful, they have no authority to govern and command, and those few laws that apply to them they had better follow.

I think SM would be a cool codex to use. Humans full of xeno chemicals and tech could easily equal a SM. Another option would be nids:
Termaguants =some small xeno creatures
Genestealers= ninja like aliens
Warriors = Humans in battlesuits
Trygon= Mining/drilling machine
Ect..
The reason I suggested them is because you can have lots of variation in the types of aliens because the units are so different.

Really rogue traders can be any codex just because they can use pretty much anything.

That is a pretty good idea actually. I've always felt that, when it comes to counts as, the only really important part of a unit is its stat line and abilities. As long as they basically look the part (i.e. bruisers look big, big guns look powerful) I think its a great idea to choose codexes based on how well their gameplay matches the feel your going for, then justify it with fluff.

I donnt about using the nid codex for them, just because they dont have any vehicles, and I feel that a rogue trader would have an arsenal replete with a myriad of engines of war.

WH/DH codex seems the best IMO. Induct some guard to use some russes, utilize an inquisitor loaded with a full retinue to be a counts-as RT, maybe an eversor assassin as an amped up guy loaded with alien tech, SoB or Grey Knights to be counts-as personal guard, lots of possibilites.

Depends on how you view RTs.

Personaly I think that tyranids could give you walkers and other kinds of battle vehicles (Tyrgons, carnifexs, Hivetyrants), the only thing you wouldn't get is transports which wouldn't be common for Rogue Traders because they have to fit all their gear onto a couple of ships so bulky Rhinos or Chimera probably wouldn't be top of the list.

It is dependant on whether you want to play a trader who works mainly on the imperial side- so would use a random assortment of imperial gear with some alien stuff thrown in, or if you want to play a radical who uses mostly alien stuff.

That is a pretty good idea actually. I've always felt that, when it comes to counts as, the only really important part of a unit is its stat line and abilities. As long as they basically look the part (i.e. bruisers look big, big guns look powerful) I think its a great idea to choose codexes based on how well their gameplay matches the feel your going for, then justify it with fluff.

Thats how I see it. I look at the way it plays and the effect of items rather than how they work. If two items have the same effect I am not bothered if you represent one as the other.

riplikash wrote:An yes, they totally need their own codex.

Isn't a complete RPG enough for Rogue traders.
BTW we should not forget the considerable number of cosmetics merchants in the 40k universe, the famous Rouge traders

I think the Inquisition still has authority over the bearers of Warrants of Trade. The might not be able to rescind them but they can still conscript the trader. I know that inquisitors travelling on rogue trader vessels is well established in fluff and both are willing to cultivate ties should the respective individuals get alone. Mutually beneficial deals and all that.